BUOYED by an excellent point at Swindon on Thursday night, Ipswich Evening Star Witches will be looking for another good performance on the road at Peterborough tonight.

Mike Bacon

BUOYED by an excellent point at Swindon on Thursday night, Ipswich Evening Star Witches will be looking for another good performance on the road at Peterborough tonight.

With wins at Premier League King's Lynn, Lakeside and a draw at Swindon already under their belts, the Evening Star Witches have had more success on the road in 2008 then in the whole of 2007 already.

However a lack of consistency at home is costing them, and that is why they still sit bottom of the Sky Sports Elite League table.

Tonight, as at Swindon, the Witches will have to ride without Jarek Hampel and Piotr Swiderski, who are still stuck in Poland trying to ride a thrice-postponed Polish GP qualifer.

Both riders are missing out on pay-days in England and helping their Witches team-mates as they wait for the weather to turn in their home country.

Chris Holder and rider replacement, as was the situation at Swindon, will take the place of the two Witches.

The Witches were only at Peterborough three weeks ago and lost by just four points in the Craven Shield.

The Panthers will not take the Witches lightly, but the signs are there that they have turned the corner after a slow start, with better displays from several of the younger members of the team.

Panthers boss Colin Horton said: "Ipswich were a strong side when they came here the other week and they put up a good fight against us, I don't think we were ready for them or prepared well enough, but we are now and I don't think they will get that close to us again".

Co-promoter Mick Bratley said: " Ipswich caught us cold in our first competitive match of the season, but the improvement in our young side is there for us all to see and I'd like to think that we can dispose of the Witches a lot more comfortably than we did earlier in the season."

Confidence is obviously high in the home camp then, although a heavy defeat at Lakeside on Friday night will have dampened that slightly.

The Witches are likely to switch the riding order around for Thursday's visit of Eastbourne, with the likelihood Robert Miskowiak and Piotr Swiderski will be split up as a pairing.

Tonight's teams

Peterborough: 1 Hans Andersen, 2 Morten Risager, 3 Kenneth Bjerre, 4 Sam Simota, 5 Danny King, 6 Claus Vissing, 7 Henrik Moller.

Ipswich: 1 Robert Miskowiak, 2 Chris Holder, 3 Chris Louis, 4 Steve Johnston, 5 R/R, 6 Tobi Kroner, 7 Chris Schramm.